Ich Bin Ein Frohike

I am an avowed John Shiban hater, so I groaned when I saw his writing credit as this episode began. Yes, the script is shallow, preposterous and largely unintelligible (all Shiban trademarks) but Tom Braidwood (as Frohike) ends up delivering such a strong comic, yet heartfelt, performance that I ended up enjoying this episode quite a bit.

The sight of Frohike decked out in lederhosen, with his deadpan but faintly pained expression, is priceless. Pure comedy gold! But the best part of this episode, at least for me, is the touching and sympathetic rapport that Frohike develops with his putative German mother during his short stay in her home.

A big part of "The X-Files" success, I believe, is due to the presence of an emotional core in most of its stories, which is a component that tends to get overloooked in the zany antics of the Gunmen. Here, they manage to capture this "lightning in a bottle" in the depiction of the relationship between Frohike and his "mother" and the episode is all the better for it, despite the otherwise ridiculous storyline.

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